Leaked ‘ black budget’ reveals spying details
U. S. covert agencies’ top- secret missions, spending disclosed
WASHINGTON — U. S. spy agencies have built an intelligencegathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats, according to the government’s top- secret budget.
The $ 52.6 billion “black budget” for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post fromformerintelligence contractor Edward Snowden, mapsa bureaucraticand operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny.
Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending since 2007, it has not divulged how it uses the funds or how it performs against goals set by the president and Congress.
The178- page budget summary for theNational Intelligence Program details the successes, failures and objectives of the 16 spy agencies that make up the U. S. intelligence community, which has 107,035 employees.
The summary describes cutting- edge technologies, agent recruiting and ongoing operations. The Post withheld some information after consultation with U. S. officials who expressed concerns about the risk to intelligence sources and methods.
“The United States has made a considerable investmentin the intelligencecommunity since the terror attacks of 9- 11, a time which includeswars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction technology and asymmetric threats in such areas as cyberwarfare,” Director ofNational Intelligence James Clapper said in response to inquiries fromThe Post.
“Our budgets are classified, as they could provide insight for foreign intelligence services to discern our top national priorities, capabilities and sources and methods that allow us to obtain information to counter threats.”
Amongthe notable revelations:
Spending by the CIA has surged past that of every other spy agency, with $ 14.7 billion in requested funding for 2013. The figure vastly exceeds outside estimates and is nearly 50 percent higher than that of the National Security Agency, which conducts eavesdropping operations and has long been considered the behemoth of the community.
The CIA and NSA have launched aggressive new efforts to hack into foreign computer networks to steal information or sabotage enemy systems, embracing what thebudgetrefers to as “offensive cyber operations.”
The NSA planned to investigate at least 4,000 possible insider threats in 2013, cases in which the agency suspected sensitive information may have been compromised by one of its own. The budget documents showthat the U. S. intelligence community has sought to strengthen its ability to detect what it calls “anomalous behavior” by personnel with access to highly classified material.
U. S. intelligence officials take an active interest in foes as well as friends. Pakistan is described in detail as an “intractable target,” and counterintelligence operations “are strategically focused against ( the) priority targets of China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Israel.”
In words, deeds and dollars, intelligence agencies remain fixed on terrorism as the gravest threat to national security, which is listed first among five “mission objectives.” Counterterrorism programs employ 1 in 4 members of the intelligenceworkforce and account for onethird of all spending.
The governments of Iran, ChinaandRussia aredifficult to penetrate, but North Korea’s may be the most opaque. There are five “critical” gaps in U. S. intelligence about Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, and analysts knowvirtually nothing about the intentions of North Korean leader Kim JongUn.
Formally known as the Congressional Budget Justification for the National Intelligence Program, the “Top Secret” blueprint represents spending levels proposed to theHouse and Senate intelligence committees in February 2012.
Congress may have made changes before the fiscal year began Oct 1. Clapper is expected to release the actual total spending figure after this fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
In an introduction to the summary, Clapper said the threats facing the United States “virtually defy rankordering.” He warned of “hard choices” as the intelligence community seeks to rein in spending after a decade of often double- digit budget increases. The summaryprovides a detailed look at how the intelligence community has been reconfigured by the massive infusion of resources that followed the Sept. 11attacks.
The United States has spent more than $ 500 billion on intelligence during that period, anoutlaythat officials say has succeeded in its main objective: preventing another catastrophic terrorist attack in theUnited States.
This year’s total budget request was 2.4 percent less than that of fiscal 2012. In constant dollars, it was roughly twice the estimated size of the 2001 budget and 25 percent higher than that of 2006, five years into what was thenknownas the “globalwar on terror.”
Historical data on U. S. intelligence spending are largely nonexistent. Through extrapolation, experts have estimated that Cold War spending likely peaked in the late 1980s at an amount that would be the equivalent of $ 71billion today.
Spending in the most recent cycle surpassed that amount based on the $ 52.6 billion detailed in documents obtained by The Post, plus a separate $ 23 billion devoted to intelligence programs that more directly support the U. S. military.
The NSA was in line to receive $ 10.5 billion in 2013, and the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates satellites and other sensors, was to get $ 10.3 billion — both far less than the CIA, whosesharehadsurgedto28 percent of the total budget.
Overall, the U. S. spends 10 times as much on the Department of Defense as it does on spy agencies.